Sometimes the advice on dietary supplements people are given is worse than worthless. “HIV Patients Seeking Advice from Health Food Stores”—26 stores recommended 36 different products, including some, like garlic, that can critically interfere with certain HIV meds.

When the FDA and Health Canada issued advisory warnings to stop taking the herb kava kava, due to one too many cases of fatal liver toxicity, it didn’t seem to affect things much in health food stores.

What about “Health Food Stores’ Recommendations for Nausea and Migraines During Pregnancy”? Would health food store employees recommend “supplements contraindicated in pregnancy that could cause significant harm to the mother and/or fetus?” You betcha. And what kills me is that there are pregnancy-safe supplements for nausea, like powdered ginger, that may be effective, yet they were instead advised to take a long list of untested things, including herbs like feverfew and black cohosh, which can cause uterine contractions and possible miscarriage.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Serena Mylchreest.

Sometimes the advice on dietary supplements people are given is worse than worthless. “HIV Patients Seeking Advice from Health Food Stores”—26 stores recommended 36 different products, including some, like garlic, that can critically interfere with certain HIV meds.

When the FDA and Health Canada issued advisory warnings to stop taking the herb kava kava, due to one too many cases of fatal liver toxicity, it didn’t seem to affect things much in health food stores.

What about “Health Food Stores’ Recommendations for Nausea and Migraines During Pregnancy”? Would health food store employees recommend “supplements contraindicated in pregnancy that could cause significant harm to the mother and/or fetus?” You betcha. And what kills me is that there are pregnancy-safe supplements for nausea, like powdered ginger, that may be effective, yet they were instead advised to take a long list of untested things, including herbs like feverfew and black cohosh, which can cause uterine contractions and possible miscarriage.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Serena Mylchreest.

14 responses to “Dangerous Advice from Health Food Store Employees”

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I was one of the lucky ones. I went into a health food store and asked about the efficacy of a certain diet. The employee didn’t know, but she suggested I read The China Study. It has been five years since that fateful day. I am happily eating a plant-based diet with no supplements except vitamin B-12. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

The key is to say, “I don’t know” when you really don’t know. However, for many people (altruistically speaking) they want to help others so bad that will recommend something that they have heard might work without knowing the true consequences of their recommendations.
Reminds me of a great line in Monty Python, The Holy Grail from Roger the Shrubber, “Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred.”

Sorry but it makes absolutely no sense for someone in such “serious/grave” situation such as HIV or pregnant to seek advice from a health food store employee. But I will admit HIV or pregnant crowds may not be educated enough to go with advice of a minimum wage worker.

Water extracts of Kava Kava, which is how it is traditional used, is not hepatotoxic and is still legal in Australia because of this. However ethanol extracts of Kava Kava are potentially hepatotoxic and are illegal here. Thought of would clarify that there is a clear difference between the two in terms of safety.

Abstract
Morinda citrifolia (noni) fruit juice has been approved as a safe food in many nations. A few cases of hepatitis in people who had been drinking noni juice have been reported, even though no causal link could be established between the liver injury and ingestion of the juice. To more fully evaluate the hepatotoxic potential of noni fruit juice, in vitro hepatotoxicity tests were conducted in human liver cells, HepG2 cell line. A subchronic oral toxicity test of noni fruit was also performed in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats to provide benchmark data for understanding the safety of noni juice, without the potential confounding variables associated with many commercial noni juice products. Freeze-dried filtered noni fruit puree did not decrease HepG2 cell viability or induce neutral lipid accumulation and phospholipidosis. There were no histopathological changes or evidence of dose-responses in hematological and clinical chemistry measurements, including liver function tests. The no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) for freeze-dried noni fruit puree is greater than 6.86 g/kg body weight, equivalent to approximately 90 ml of noni fruit juice/kg. These findings corroborate previous conclusions that consumption of noni fruit juice is unlikely to induce adverse liver effects..”

It might be an idea worth of consideration to compile a list of all of the toxic substances, dosages and counterindications – sort of a black list to check out now and then. For now one has to be really into watching all of the videos available which is not always the case for every site visitor. Somebody might see one video on benefits of cinnamon and decide to go for a couple tsp a day which is exactly what happened to me a while ago :) any drugs need clear warning even if it’s a healthy food :) and sorry if I’m such a loser and missed this list somewhere :))

I did a search on the site for HIV and didn’t find anything. My problem is my doctors seem to think that I need, as an HIV patient, to eat meat and dairy to maintain my health. I became vegan and lost 30 pounds. I am now 6′ and 160 pounds. My doctors freaked out because, as they say, I was getting too thin. I disagree with that. Is there anything, in studies, to suggest they are right? Thanks!

As a supplement consultant in a health food store, there’s a lot I can say in response to this. #1 is don’t put all health food store employees in the same category. Some are more knowledgeable than others. Some of us have received formal training in nutrition as well as having spent countless hours studying and researching health issues on our own. Working in a health food store and getting feedback from customers on what works and what doesn’t for various health conditions has also given me insights you will never hear at a doctor’s office. #2 is that by law health food store employees cannot dispense “medical advice” of any kind. This extends into such absurdities as not being able to recommend drinking water for someone who says they are dehydrated– if a health food store employees says “You can cure your dehydration by drinking some water” it is a violation of the law even though it is simply common sense. But if I say, “I’m not a doctor, but personally I would maybe think about drinking some water” then I am in compliance with the law. It’s all in the way things are said, and health food store employees may not be properly trained in how to use the proper wording in making product suggestions. #3 is that I always give my customers references to support the information I’ve given them, including books, online articles, websites (such as Nutritionfacts.org), referrals to Naturopathic doctors that I know, etc. One of the best resources I recommend to my customers is the free web site http://online.epocrates.com, which provides full monographs on every currently available prescription drug, including known interactions with supplements and a complete list of adverse reactions a particular prescription drug is reported to have. You would be amazed at how often a health condition or symptom that a customer is asking me about is listed as a common side effect of a drug they have been prescribed.

Hi, you commented somewhere that raw garlic can interfere with the action of some HIV meds. My partner is HIV positive, and loves garlic. How can we find out which meds don’t react well with garlic. And what about grapefruit? Thanks.